Puzzle device.



No. 703,558. Patented luly l, |902.

- P. F. DE funn.

PUZZLE DEVICE.

(Application filed Sep't. 20, 1901.) (un Model.) 2 shuts-sheet UNITED STATES PATENT OEEICEQ PAUL F.` FORD, OF PASADENA, CALIFORNIA.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters PatentvNO.' 703,558, dated July 1, 1902.

Application filed September 20, 1901l Serial No. 75,996. (No model.) i

To a/ZZ whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, PAUL F. DE FORD, of the city of Pasadena, in the county of Los Angeles, in the State of California, have invented a certain new and useful device for playing the gaine or puzzle which I choose to designate bythe title of the Missing and Reappearing Square,7 of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description or specification, reference bein g had to the annexed drawings and to the letters marked thereon.

My said invention, which relates to a certain new and useful device for playing the game or puzzle of the missing and reappear! ing square, consists of a tray or shallow box having formed upon its bottom two rectangular divisions surrounded by a ledge or raised portion which incloses these two divisions or rectangular spaces, one of which has its length to its breadth in. the ratio of thirteen to ve, and the'otherjof which spaces has its ratio of length to width in the proportion of eight and one-eighth to eight, (89; to 8,) and into which spaces sixty-five blocks of hard wood, vulcanite, celluloid, or other rigid material are capable of exactly fitting in the manner hereinafter described. The tray-receptacle itself may be constructed of any convenient size; but a size thereof which is well adapted for use in playing the Vgaine of the rnissing and reappearin g square under this in-A vention is that of a shallow flat box whose width within itsvsides is thirteen inches and its length thirteen inches also `plus 'one-eighth of an inch within or as constituting the sum of the length of the two receptacles formed partly by the external walls 4of the tray-re ceptacle and partly by the partition walls or divisions within the tray-receptacle, so that the total interior length of the tray-receptacle is thirteen and one-eighth inches plus the thickness of the division or partition between the two aforesaid receptacles. There is by this arrangement of the two rectangular receptacles within the box or sh allow tray left a third receptacle or space contained between the outer side of the inner walls or partitions forming one side each of the aforesaid receptacles, and the opposite parts of the ledges or outer walls of the tray or shallow box having its width and length in the ratio of thirteen to thirteen and one-eighth, and this receptacle or space does not constitute any part of my invention in so far, as it in any way affects 'or concerns the playing of the game of the missing and reappearing square.

In order to play the game ofthe Amissing and reappearin g square,twe1ve squares,then1 selves formed of hard material, as hereinbefore stated, when in the position as' placed in thev rectangular receptacle of thirteen by iive are divided or cu-t in a vertical plane ywhose position is indicated by a straight line drawn from the left lower angle of the eighth (8th) square counting from right to left upon either long side o f the said rectangular figure to intersect the right upper angle of same side'of the said rectangular iigure, so that the said straight line drawn inthe manner described divides the twelve squares through which itpasses in dierent proportions of divisions of each of the said twelve squares, as hereinafter more particularly described.

When the squaresl La'recut asunder in the vertical plane of the aforesaid straight line, then the several squares cut asunder, together with those not divided, on being placed into the receptacle whose length to its breadth .Y is in the ratio'of eight and one-eighth to eight Y are so altered in their relationship of position of-the divided' squares that the sixty-fifth square'virtually disappears in that portion of the receptacle which represents in thickness or width one-eighth of the side of one of the squares, andV in length eight squares, and this square is caused to disappear into this part of the receptacle, which is one-eighth in i thickness or widthv of theside of oneof the squares, byplacing the divided squares into this receptacle in' the manner now to be eX- plained. Y

' Upon the annexed drawings, Figurel is a plan of a tray or shallow box, having its cover removed, divided into'two receptacles of the proportions hereinbefore described, respectivelynarnely, a lower receptacle whose interior dimensions consist of thirteen equal parts in length and five of the said equal parts in height and an upper receptacle consisting of eight and one-eighth of such equal parts in height and eight of such equal parts in breadth. Fig. 2 is a transverse section on the line a a, Fig. 1, showing the tray orshallow box, the blocks in the lower receptacle,

ICO

and the cover thereof. Fig. 3 is a transverse section on the line i) b, Fig. 1, showing the tray or shallow box and the blocks in the upper receptacle, with the cover thereof.

The purport of my invention is to enable the sixty-live squares which exactly fill the lower receptacle B of the tray or shallow box A A also to exactly ll the upper receptacle C of the tray or shallow box A A. This is effected by placing the squares through which p the aforesaid division has been made,as shown in the lower receptacle B, in such positions within the upper receptacle C that by reason of the alterations of their positions in the upper receptacle C from the positions which the said divided squares occupy in the lower receptacle B of thirteen by five these squares by transposition in the manner now to be described till the one-eighth space of the upper receptacle C, which is longer than the width of the said receptacle C by the space indicated bythe distance of the thick dotted line c c drawn above the bottom of the upper receptacle, and this transposition of the divided squares on being effected in the manner now to be described causes the sixty-five squares to completely fill the upper receptacle C, so that the sixty-five squares, by appearance, are converted into sixty-four squares, but are not actually so converted, excepting in appearance or optically as such, for in reality the sixty-fifth square in the upper receptacle becomes spread out into a thin extension of one of the squares whose thickness or width is one-eighth of the size of any one of the equal sixty-five squares and eight squares in length.

In order to place the sixty-five squares, which squares are in live rows of thirteen in each row, and fill the lower receptacle in such manner that but eight squares constitute the length of each row, while the height of each of the eight rows when added together becomes one-eighth of the sides of one of the equal squares greater than the length of any one of the rows in the direction of the breadth of the upper receptacle C and so that the sixty-five squares shall completely fill the upper receptacle C, all that is apparently necessary (but apparently only) is to shift the five rows of squares of five each (which are not divided by the diagonal straight line) into a position at the top lefthand corner of the upper receptacle C parallel to the position they occupy in the lower receptacle B and then place these tive rows of squares of ive each into three rows of squares of eight each, as indicated by the upper hatched rectangle of twenty-four (24) squares (marked D) in Fig. l, thus leaving one of the squares filling the space five by live in the lower receptacle D, left out of the space D, or the space of eight by three in the upper receptacle C. If upon the under side of this rectangle D the forty-one remaining squares shown in the lower receptacle D be placed in the position which all the forty-one squares occupy in the lower receptacle D, then a perfeet square consisting of eight squares in each side will be situated in the upper receptacle C, with one square left over, and to include this left-over square in a rectangular receptacle whose length is one-eighth of the side of one of the constituent squares greater than its width is the problem to be solved mechanically by means of the device constituting this invention.

The mechanical solution of this problem is effected as follows: By sliding the verticallyhatched triangle E, formed of the four lowest rows of squares, through which the aforesaid diagonal line passes, to occupy the position of the upper right-hand end (marked E) of the diagonal division in the upper receptacle C and then moving the horizontally-hatched triangle F in the lower receptacle B into the position marked F in the upper receptacle C and byplacing against the diagonal line Whose position is thus transposed the triangle coinposed of the twelve squares through which the aforesaid diagonal line passes constituting the lower triangle, hatched at an angle of thirty-five degrees (marked G) in the lower receptacle of Fig. 1, into the position marked G in the upper receptacle of Fig. l, it follows that by reason of the transposition of the upper parts of the divided squares in the manner hereinbefore described the divided squares become lengthened in the direction ot' the height of the upper receptacle C to the extent of one-eighth of one of the sides of one of the equal squares or by one sixty-fourth of the total width of the upper rectangular receptacle C, and the shifting of the squares in t-he manner hereinbefore described constitutes the solution of the problem of placing sixty-five squares into the two rectangular receptacles of thirteen by tive and eight by eight and one-eighth, and which is effected by lneans of the device constituting my invention.

Having now described the nature of mysaid invention and the best system, mode, or man,

ner under which the same is or may be used or carried into practical effect, I desire to observe in conclusion that in place of constructing the receptacular portion of the rectangular box or tray of my apparatus with a plain or uniigured or ornamental interior flat bottom thereof the at bottom of each of the two receptacles D D and C C, as shown at Figs. 4, 5, and 0, may be covered all over with paper or lining material, while in order to make the playing of the game still much more of a puzzle the upper receptacle D D may be divided off into sixty-four equal rectangles and the lower receptacle C C into sixty-live equal squares, and the figures upon the lining material of each of said receptacles is alternately of different colors-such, for example, as black and white or brown and red or any other colors suitable for producing decided contrast of color in the making or figuring of the said lining material.

What I claim to be my invention, and to be secured to me by Letters Patent, is as follows:

The device consisting of a flat, nearly square tray, containing within it two receptacles, one of which receptacles has its length to its breadth in the ratio of thirteen to five equal parts and the other of which receptacles has its length to its width in the ratio of eight and one-eighth to eight of the same equal parts, which device also has sixty-five equalsided square blocks of hard material, the sixty-live equal-sided square blocks twelve of which blocks are divided in a vertical plane by diagonally-drawn straight vertical cuts through the blocks, extending from the left ence of two subscribing witnesses.

PAUL F. DE FORD. Witnesses:

ST. JOHN DAY, JOHN. SATTERWHITE.' 

